Jim – Yes, THAT Jim

(The audio of this interview is available at the bottom of this post!)

JR: Welcome to jimyesthatjim.com, the blog that continues to exist in spite of itself. For those who are listening or reading this I am online with Jennifer Hudock, who is the author of Goblin Market. The thing that I find most interesting actually that I wanted to just sort of address first is that you are a full-time writer, and that is something that is incredibly impressive to someone like me. And, I just was wondering, how did you end up doing that?

JH: I went to college when I was 26, and the funny thing is that I actually went at the time – I mean, I’ve been writing since I was a little kid. It’s all I’ve ever done. I had tried to get things published traditionally before I went to college, and when I went to college I actually went for Criminal Psychology. I was on campus for about a year before I switched my major over to English and Creative Writing. And my advisor at the time thought I was insane and said, “I know somebody who went into that major and I’m going to tell you right now, she graduated four years ago and right now she works at Pizza Hut!” And that was discouraging, but I’m a pretty determined person so I told myself – before I had gone back to college I had worked in retail, I had worked in restaurants and offices – and I told myself that after I graduated I was NOT going to get another job like that. So, once I graduated I started looking into freelance venues and I started working. It wasn’t even writing at the time, it was more internet research for a company that had just started off at that time. And because I was working with them, I got introduced to other people who were working for another company who was more focused on a combination of freelance writing and research. And I worked for them for about two years and somebody that I worked with through that company had moved on and was actually editing a blog for another company. And he really liked my writing and we had a good work relationship and he actually invited me to come and work for him. So, I have been working from home, freelancing and now writing full time for the last three years.

JR: That’s wonderful. I aspire one day to perhaps get to where you are if I can overcome my own sloth and other issues. (chuckles)

JH: (chuckles) It’s not easy. It takes a lot of discipline. I mean, there are days where I wake up and I would rather stay in bed and sleep in until noon like I used to do but because I have to focus on my work like that it’s more disciplined. And because I learned that discipline of having to work at home and being responsible completely for your own income it motivated me in a lot of other ways, too – I mean, even with podcasting and writing fiction. You have deadlines and you have to meet them so, it’s been a help in a lot of different ways.

JR: Do you use any of those two years of Criminal Psychology in your writing at all?

JH: Actually, this is really funny. The thing that prompted me to go into Criminal Psychology was my love of The X-Files.

JR: Ah!

JH: I wanted to be like Mulder. I actually wanted to join the FBI at the time that I applied to go to college. So, I did have about two years’ worth of psychology before I really switched my major. It’s interesting because – psychology – you learn a lot about how the mind works and I definitely do use that when I’m creating characters because one of the things, being inside a character’s head, is knowing how they psychologically process things. So, it does help. Yeah.

JR: Cool, absolutely. Goblin Market, your podcast, is coming to an end, is it not?

JH: Yes, I have one more episode to record and it will be done! I do have to go back – the first seven episodes, the sound quality was just atrocious because my equipment was poor. I went back and I rerecorded the first episode. I haven’t put it out yet, but after that I have six more that I need to rerecord before I can put it up on Podiobooks.

JR: I really liked it. I’ve been enjoying it for some time now. I first heard about it I think when I was – I’m following Mur Lafferty in her feed – in her Twitter feed – and she mentioned it. And so I went and I checked it out. And it’s really cool, I think! I can see very clearly your fandom of things of the ilk of the Rossetti poem and Labyrinth and all that, but you’ve also gone in other directions with it and I think that is cool that you’re coming up with newer ideas to apply to that kind of thing. Where did your primary inspiration for Goblin Market come from?

JH: It was kind of a cross between Labyrinth and the Christina Rossetti poem. The very first chapter of the novel is sort of the younger sister who goes into the market in the Christina Rossetti poem. And I actually introduce it in the podcast with four lines from the poem – you know, “We should not look at goblin men.” And it was kind of a cross between that. And the funny thing is – and a lot of people probably don’t know this – some people might if they’re big fans of Brian Froud and the Labyrinth – but the Goblin Market was originally a Labyrinth fan fiction that I wrote.

JR: Oh, really?

JH: And after I finished it I realized I had put SO many elements that had nothing to do with the original story into it that I could go back and change a few little details and it would be original. So I did that. The Darknjan Wald, which is the bizarre, disgusting, rotting forest that they have to travel through to get to the goblin castle was originally the Labyrinth. So, there was a lot that you could twist and turn into something that had nothing to do with the Labyrinth itself.

JR: That’s very cool. Yeah, I noticed that – that the environment starts changing and it gets less and less recognizable – I guess more alien – and I really liked that.

JH: Thank you.

JR: It’s very cool, it’s very cool. Well now, once Goblin Market ends, you’ve certainly got plenty of other irons on the fire, I think, to keep you busy right now! The Dark Journeys anthology – tell us about that.

JH: Well, the Dark Journeys collection is a collection of short stories. They are completely unrelated to each other and I put one out pretty much every Friday on Amazon and Smashwords for download for 99 cents to $1.99. I only have one right now that’s $1.99 and that’s because it’s novella-length. But they’re all completely unconnected to each other – but yet, they’re connected by the fact that life itself is a journey. And I twisted it into these dark elements that sometimes we face things in life that are really difficult to overcome. But instead of just focusing on difficult life elements I took it more to a supernatural level. One of the stories, Portrait of the Dead Countess, is about a young boy who becomes enchanted by a haunted portrait in his family’s summer home that is connected to the devil. And through the devil in this portrait he becomes mesmerized and he kills for this portrait to sustain its life – because the woman the portrait was painted of gained immortality by selling her soul to the devil, and the portrait itself was actually painted on human flesh – like, the canvas was human flesh.

JR: Nice!

JH: So, I mean, it’s completely against his will that he’s doing this – like, he’s committing murders to sustain the portrait’s life…

JR: Interesting…

JH: I mean, which, you know – that happens every day. (laughs)

JR: Well, yeah! (laughs) I was almost thinking sort of a reverse Dorian Gray type thing there, where you’re just doing all you can to keep the portrait safe. That’s awesome, that’s great. So, what prompted this sort of buck-and-two-buck fiction thing going on?

JH: My fiancée, James Melzer, started a Deviant Dollars series a couple of months ago where he was selling short stories on Amazon and Smashwords for 99 cents. And I thought to myself, he’s a genius! Because I have been trying to sell my fiction for years and every single story in this collection has been shopped out or previously published on smaller venues like online zines or journals that are so obscure you would never even know about them. And I thought this is a good way to get your work out there so people can read it!

JR: Cool! And are people buying it?

JH: Yeah, yeah! I mean, surprisingly enough, some stories do much better than others. Two of the stories are zombie stories. I have the Zombie Double Shot, which is the shortest thing in the collection and it actually has two stories in it – it only comes to about 3000 words with both stories combined, but that one has outsold all the other stories like four to one.

JR: Well, that’s great! I look forward to seeing how that comes out because that sounds like you guys may be onto something there!

JH: Yeah, a lot of people are actually doing it now, and I’m not sure if they’re having success with it. I tend to approach it from – you know, if you help me out and help me spread the word about this I’m glad to give you the story for free. So, I think that helps a little bit. And the funny thing is that a lot of the people who do blog about it or spread the word about it, they’re like, “No, no. I want to support you. I’ll buy it.” And that’s touching.

JR: That IS great.

JH: Because the community that we’re a part of is just so amazing – I mean people just have no idea. (chuckles)

JR: Absolutely, absolutely. So what’s next? You clearly have, like I said, a bunch of irons on the fire. Any of them that you’d care to pull out and have us bask in the glow of?

JH: Well, I AM working on two collaborative anthology projects. I have the From the Dark Side anthology, which is a charity anthology. I have a bunch of people who are submitting work. We’re going to put the anthology together and sell it through Amazon and Smashwords, and if it does well I would like to actually put it out in print as well. We’ve had some amazing people who are just willing to give their stuff over and we’re going to donate all of the proceeds from the sales to the Letters and Light organization which is affiliated with the National November is Writing Month forums.

JR: Which organization was that?

JH: Letters and Light. It’s a charity that helps promote creative writing in classrooms for kids.

JR: Cool. Excellent.

JH: So there’s that that I’m working on, and I’m also working on the Farrago anthology, which is another charity sort of anthology. It’s not as official, but my friend Michael Bekemeyer, who is a filmmaker, needs to raise money so he can actually put his film vision into the works. So, I mentioned it on Twitter: “Hey, would you guys be willing to donate a story to this anthology so we can help Michael raise money for his film project?” And I was just blown away by the amount of people who came out and were like, “I’ll do it! I’ll do it! I’ll do it!” And, I mean, by the end of that day I had so many e-mails from people who wanted to help Michael out – people that didn’t even know him – that it just blew my mind!

JR: Awesome. Well, I am definitely looking forward to that. Give us your web site! How can we find you?

JH: You can find me at www.jennybeans.net.

JR: And that links to all your other projects?

JH: Oh yeah, yeah.

JR: Cool, well, definitely looking forward to seeing how these things develop. Thank you very much for talking to us!

JH: Thanks for having me!

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Music by Kevin MacLeod

So, you might have noticed that I haven’t posted an entry in a little while.

Don’t worry, folks.  I still love you.  I am not seeing other blogs behind your backs.  But unfortunately I got buried under what I can only characterize as a Mountain of Year-End Work.  And so, some of my ongoing projects got pushed back a little bit.  Doing more entries for the blog got pushed back a bit.  The Great Debate! got pushed back a bit.  The other things that I do for War Pig also got pushed back a bit, unfortunately.

And some of that had to do with the fact that I got sick a couple of times, but a good deal of it was that I had a lot that I had to get done by the end of the year.  I wrote a few short stories for presents for some of my relatives – an option that I highly recommend if you’re short on cash and don’t mind burning the midnight oil for several nights in a row.  I also was crusading to finally get the second episode of the Every World News put together and released and thankfully was successful at that!  I was gunning to get it out by Christmas and thankfully I made that deadline.  I also started lending my voice to a couple of other podcasts: Starla Huchton’s The Dreamer’s Thread and the forthcoming The Last Guardians by “Indiana” Jim Perry.  So between all of that – and of course, still going around job hunting – I kind of had to let a few things slide for a little bit.

But the good news is we are now coming up to the end of the year, so with any luck that’ll mean I can get back up on the horse and return to the trail – hopefully without steering myself into a ravine on the way.  I have many, many more blog topics planned and will be getting to them presently.

So, worry not!  All shall be well!  Everything is under control.  Do not rush for the life boats.  There is no reason to panic.  All is in hand!

Click below if you’d like to hear me read the article:

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Music by Dave Girtman

Something has been seriously bugging me lately.  I’m not sure how long this has been going on, but have you noticed something peculiar that’s started to happen when they stick an animated character into a film?

I thought I was imagining it at first, but after the most recent batch of summer blockbusters, I realized I was seeing the same thing over and over.  It hasn’t been very noticeable but I’m pretty sure I’ve finally worked out what’s actually going on.

Here’s the deal.

>>>  [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<<

> source terminal location: UNKNOWN

> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE

> source login information: ENCRYPTED

> message begins

the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH.  do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!

there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot.  you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE’S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated.

human cloning isn’t NEAR. it’s already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net

you are being DECEIVED. break free from the cogs, flee the hive, become A PROPHET OF THE TRUTH!

kilroy2.0 was here … kilroy2.0 is everywhere

>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<<

probably keep happening until the word “maudlin” is almost totally obscured.

That’s the scary part.  This kind of thing will keep going on in movies, literature and even podcasts without anybody realizing what’s really occurring.

I’m just glad to have caught it now, before someone had to break the sock puppets out to explain it to me.

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Hello, my name is Jim and I’m a podaholic.

“Hi, Jim!”

I’ve been addicted to podcasts since some time in 2008.  I’m not sure exactly when I started.  It’s all become a kind of blur, really.  I still remember that fateful day when that guy on the street corner waved an iPod at me and offered the first hit for free.

“Come on, you know you want to.  Everybody’s doing it.”

And from the moment I first plugged that rich, direct podcast feed into my veins, I started a horrifying downward spiral from which there was no escape.

I experimented with RPG podcasts at first.  Sure, they seemed pretty innocuous, but soon they weren’t enough.  I had to have more.  I started in on philosophical podcasts, then the downward slide to comedy podcasts and music podcasts was inevitable.  Soon I didn’t even need an iPod to listen to them.  I started to hear them in my head!

Granted, this would usually happen when I sat down at the computer, and started WinAmp, but there surely must have been more going on than just an MP3 file being played through my computer’s speakers.  Something much more ominous had to be occurring.  Clearly I’d connected with these podcasts on a level that defied all sanity and reason.

After a little while it seemed as though some of the podcasts I listened to began speaking directly to me.  They began responding to questions and concerns that I’d had as though they could read my mind!  No matter that I’d begun sending e-mails to the podcasters, who were then reading them on their podcasts.  That was far too simple an explanation.  There was clearly a much more sinister force at work.

My addiction had spun completely out of control.  My desktop had become littered with icons for downloaded mp3 files from top to bottom.  I’d started playing MMORPGs just for something to do while listening to the podcasts.  My computer was turning into nothing more than a glorified radio!

I tried to be good.  I tried to cut down on my listening and live some semblance of a normal life, but every time I’d abandon my podcasts to go out and visit friends or shop for groceries or pick up my mail, I’d inevitably find myself rushing back to the computer to find more podcasts to listen to than ever before!

In the end, I came to the realization that I had utterly failed to stay on the podcast wagon (or, indeed, get on it in the first place).  So I decided that if I was going to fail, I would fail spectacularly.  I began to produce my own podcasts.  Instead of chasing the demon away, I’ve embraced it and am now proud to call myself part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

So, why not come and take a listen to my podcasts?  The Great Debate! and The Every World News Podcast are just sitting there waiting for you.

Come on, you know you want to.  Everybody’s doing it.

And incidentally, if anyone out there happens to be curious, here’s a list of the podcasts I listen to.

If you have a podcast and I haven’t listed it, don’t worry, I’ll probably be listening to it sooner or later.

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